Updated
April 18, 2020 13: 15: 08
A 30-year-old woman, seemingly healthy and with no coronavirus symptoms, presented to an imaging department in Iran after losing a relative to COVID-19.
Key points:
- CT scans have picked up COVID-19 pneumonia in asymptomatic patients, but are not effective for ruling out the disease
- Radiologists around the world are sharing CT scans and X-rays to help each other understand COVID-19
- Radiology is pivotal for managing patients in intensive care units who are on ventilators
Under routine protocols this patient would not be given a chest scan, but in this instance, doctors made an exception.
Within days her CT scan, which showed markings typical of COVID-19 pneumonia, had been seen by doctors all around the world.
With most countries using strict border controls to help contain the pandemic, radiologists — doctors who specialise in interpreting X-rays and scans — are instead working to break down barriers, to allow the sharing of critical medical information.
While swab testing is a more effective way to diagnose COVID-19, medical imaging plays a crucial role in understanding what the disease is doing to the body and how to treat it.
Since the virus took hold in Iran in February, radiologist Dr Bahman Rasuli has shared 11 CT scans with the Australian-based medical website, Radiopaedia.org.
The Tehran-based doctor’s most recent upload was the lung scan of the 30-year-old woman.
“She insisted on taking a CT scan because she was very worried,” he said.
“Maybe this case in A